Zayn: Mind of Mine ALBUM REVIEW

Truth be told, boy bands are one of my biggest pet peeves. In fact, this extends not only to the usual suspects like The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, but also to such lauded acts such as The Beatles in their early days. Sure, they at least had good songs to back up the cringe worthy image, but even then, some of the songs that they performed were pretty brain dead as well.

Rant aside, the reason I bring it up (aside from the obvious one, the fact that Zayn was a prominent member of One Direction) is because there is the inevitable point where the boy band breaks up, and we get a slew of solo albums from every member, and in this case, Zayn is the first to do so. Mostly because his departure did not spell out the immediate break up of the group, but still, the stage is now set for the other members to make their moves into a solo career. So, did Zayn set the bar high? Not really, but I can't say that I hated anything on this album, and that may be the best compliment I can give Mind of Mine.

Now, don't get me wrong, this album isn't great by any means; in fact, very few moments are more than passable, and even fewer are what I would call truly worthwhile. And example of the latter luckily comes very early in the record in the form of "It's You" (no, I'm not spelling the titles out like they are in the tracklist...), this track is incredibly smooth, and kind of reminds me of an early R.Kelly song, though not nearly as overtly sexual, though Zayn tries to spice things up by throwing a random F-bomb on this and a few other tracks on the album.

"Pillowtalk" is also okay, but I can't say it is a favorite of mine, mostly because it suffers from the same problem that a song like Adele's "Hello" does; it is all build up with absolutely zero pay off in the chorus. Other moments I enjoyed were "Rear View" and "Borders" both of which have really steady grooves, and Zayn's vocals are solid as would be expected.

However, despite having this few standout moments, the project as a whole is pretty bland. Zayn sounds good on every track, but the instrumentals are all a bit too smooth throughout and the lyrics are pretty much what you'd expect from a former boy band member. But, like I said at the beginning of the review, I didn't hate a single track on this entire LP, sure, it was boring and forgettable at points, but that has a lot to do with the fact that the album doesn't switch things up enough. I'd say that if he improves his writing chops a bit and tries jumping on some more active instrumentals, it is quite possible that we could have another Justin Timberlake on our hands; and that's exciting, right?

6.0/10